Welcome to SPJ Blogs Sign in | Join | Help

Welcome!

Welcome to Generation J’s First Draft blog! I hope that this blog will inspire, coach, discuss and learn from young journalists. Anyone can read and chat on the blog – but it is intended to focus on issues relating to young journalists. You know, the about 21 to 30 year old age group of people who are working professionally. To me this group is where I feel most comfortable within SPJ – I’m not a “student” anymore, but I’m also not yet what I’d call a seasoned “professional.” (Even though I think everyone should remain a student by constantly learning and anyone can be a professional if they take their work seriously.) So, to start us off I’ll tell you who I am. I’m a 24-year-old reporter working in the OC. I graduated from Cal State Long Beach a year and a half ago and started work right away at the Irvine World News (a community newspaper of the Orange County Register). I started out as activities reporter compiling calendars and writing features. About six months in I started on the Irvine city hall beat – covering cops, courts, development, and the planning for a park twice the size of Central Park – the Great Park. In my spare time I lead a professional SPJ chapter in the OC that I started about a year ago. As a side note, my other career is tap dancing – good for calming me after stressful days and nights in the newsroom. Well, enough about me. For the blog – always feel free to post comments, questions and ideas. Or, you can always e-mail me . And – for starters – I’ll blog every Monday on inspiration. Each “inspiration Monday” I’ll post either an inspiring story or photo package, idea for staying inspired, or ideas from you. I think staying inspired is a problem for young journalists – who can often get lost in media organizations, large or small. We are the next generation – look around your newsroom and know that someday we’ll be running things. We need to learn from each other, inspire each other and grow together so we can continue this country’s history of free press.
Published Thursday, March 01, 2007 1:00 AM by SonyaSmith
Filed Under:

Comments

# re: Welcome!

Thursday, March 01, 2007 7:33 PM by Jorge Barrientos
Glad to be on board. This generation is surely an important one for the future of journalism. We will help determine what direction this centuries old artform will go. It's unpredictable, sure, but as long as this generation discusses the changes and sticks together, we can help make an impact and have fun doing it.

# re: Welcome!

Friday, March 02, 2007 5:20 PM by GenePark
I completely agree with Sonya about the student bit. Even hardened veterans have plenty to learn from, since each situation we cover often times varies from any precedent. I consider myself a student for as long as I'm in this career.
Anonymous comments are disabled. Please log in or create an account to comment on this article.